Here
is your opportunity to learn about a specific type of technology and then
share your newly-developed knowledge with your classmates. As you
know, teaching is a science and you need to follow a logical process of
introducing, presenting and assessing the technology skills for which you
are assigned.
Designing
After you have selected a topic and met with Dr. Z for the first time, you will begin your designing process for this project by completing the Lesson Designer template. This is where you organize your thoughts about the overall objectives you are trying to accomplish and the strategies you plan to use to teach these skills.
Developing
Once you have organized your ideas with the Lesson Designer template, it is time to actually develop the lesson into a useable form using the ISTE NETS Lesson Design template. Completing this template will provide you with the instructions you will need for both your students and yourself to make this a successful lesson.
Reflecting
You have taught your lesson and now it is time to reflect on your success. Remember that your reflection will include your lesson AND the success you see in your students completing the summative assessment activity that you have selected (that goes in the So What.) This third template is the Reflections on Our Lesson template. You can download all three of these templates at TechTeachingUnit.zip.
Hints for a Presentating a Successful Lesson:
Introduction
Introduce your topic/skill in a way that will
demonstrate the product of the skill AND build interest in your students
to learn how to do what you would like to teach them. If you are
going to teach your students how to digitize sound, have your computer
deliver the first two minutes of your talk by delivering your digitized
voice. If you are going to teach about digitized photography, begin
your presentation with a slide show of digitized pictures that you took
while your students were coming into class. Make it interesting
and enticing!
Teach
the Skills
This is the actual process of providing an environment
where the students will be able to learn the skills of the day.
You have captured your students' interest with your opening. Now
it is time for you to MAKE IT HAPPEN. Keep your goals and objectives
in mind as you execute your teaching plan.
You need to:
Plan Your Teaching
and Teach to Your Plan!!
Begin with the basics of your topic. Imagine that your students
(yes, they ARE your students) have no knowledge in the area. This
may be a little boring to some of the advanced students, but your lesson
is only about 40 minutes so you will be up to their level soon enough.
Introduce the vocabulary in a consistent, concrete
manner. This is the foundation for the rest of the lesson so you
need to build this foundation. You will want to provide examples
and applications of the vocabulary as well as a reference sheet for the
students.
Now introduce your students to the tools you
will be using for the process you will be teaching. If you are teaching
digital photography, introduce them to the various kinds of cameras, tripods
and devices necessary for viewing your pictures.
Once they know the vocabulary and have seen the
hardware, introduce your students to the process. Proceed through
the steps of taking a picture. It's not a complicated process, just
point-and-shoot. The complicated part is selecting the subject,
managing the lighting and orchestrating the picture composition.
Provide a set of suggestions/hints as you explain the process.
Learners must be active to get the most out of
an educational experience. Provide them with an opportunity to actually
DO IT! Form into groups of 2 - 4 students and provide a hands-on
experience. Hand out digital cameras and have your students walk
around your school taking pictures of interesting places and people.
Bring them back to class and have them share their experiences.
Now that they have had their experiences, it's
time to let them work on their own. Learning is best internalized
when learners have to personally apply what they have done to create an
original work.
Assignment/Assessment
You can teach all day but it isn't useful unless
the students learn. How do you know if they have learned what you
were trying to teach them? The assessment is usually done through
the completion of a project that demonstrates your students are able to
successfully execute the skills you taught. Remember that the goal
of the lesson is NOT to complete the final project. The goal of
the lesson should be to introduce your class to the skills. The
goal of the assignment/assessment is to discover how well your students
have learned to apply their newly-found skills.
Additional Quick Tips :
- Make the beginning
of your lesson OBVIOUS and EXPLICIT. Don't just slide into your
lesson. Make a distinct beginning for your lesson so your students
will know when to get into the "student/learner" mode.
- Don't use ANY
JARGON without first spending some time clearly defining the terms.
This is the surest way to lose your audience (yes, you need to consider
your students as an audience because you want to address their needs).
Students may be able to withstand hearing one undefined term, but as
soon as they hear two or three undefined new words, your students will
begin to tune out of your lesson.
- Test the actual
software you are going to use on the actual computer you will be using
BEFORE you teach your lesson. Technology is complicated enough
that similar programs on similar computers DO NOT necessarily run the
same. The TML is open during the week for you to practice. Check
the schedule that is posted on the door.
- Have your test
files already created and tested on the presentation computer with the
presentation software in the presentation room. This will not
remove all possibility of things not working correctly, but it will
reduce your "problem rate" dramatically.
The most important part of your lesson is to have fun!
Enjoyment is contagious and always beneficial to the learning process!
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